Dear Tess

Dear Tess,
Your only in 6th grade, trust me you’re a lot younger than you think you are. You also dress way too much like your friends. You’ll be surprised how good you look in birkenstocks, and how well you’ll get along with the people who dont judge you when dance in public.  I have a few pieces of advice. Pay attention.
My first piece of advice:
Be nice, to everyone. It’ll surprise you how many cool people you will meet when you’re nice to everyone. Even if you think they’re weird. Remember Mikaela? You were friends with her in first through fourth grade before she moved to St. Albans. You two were realy good friends, even though all your other friends though she was a weird farm girl. Shes one of the coolest people you know. If you open up your mind again you will meet a lot more people like Mikaela.

People are a lot more interesting if you let them be. Have an open mind about everyone you meet. You can learn a lot from strangers. One day your going to meet a guy, I’m not gonna say his name, and you will learn nothing from him. You’ll know it’s him when he shows you his tattoo. Stay away from that guy. The only thing you will learn from him is how to break a mechanical monster. (It’s a long story). Other than that guy, you will learn a lot from strangers, just stay away from the sketchy ones.

Now for my second piece of wisdom:
Stop worrying so much about what people think, and then you will realize, that life can be a lot more exciting.

Stop messing with your hair. You will realise this on your own in 7th grade, but it will save you a lot of time if you know now what I do. If you don’t brush your hair every five minutes, it looks fine, it actually looks better if you just let it do its thing. Just because everyone else has straight perfect hair doesn’t mean you need it too.

And you really shouldn’t care what boys think, because no one knows what boys are thinking, so why bother? Plus they’re stupid, a lot stupider than you. So just be a freak, and don’t care as much as everyone else does.

The Last thing you should know:

Never stop doing something you love, but don’t keep doing something you hate.

Once band ends in 8th grade, keep playing, even though your friends think its weird. Band is the most fun you will have in all of middle school. All those days you’ll spend messing around in the band room and your “Band Party Lessons” with Lucas and Caroline are going to be some of your fondest memories of middle school. Cut Mr. Myres some slack. He does a lot of work. Not only does he practice conducting every night, hes also in the army, and takes care of his mom. When band comes to a close, keep playing the clarinet. I wish I could still play, it was my only talent and I’m having trouble finding a new one.
Will you just quit field hockey already? The only reason your doing it is because you don’t want to be the only person who doesn’t play a school sport. You hate it, you can’t run, and you will be much happier if you have your afternoons free.
Just remember, be nice, don’t worry about what people think, and do what you love.

P.S.  Messy Hair is totally going to be in style, and you can totally pull it off.